This study investigates time trends in debt attitudes, the socio-economic profiles of members in three debt attitudes groups, implications for borrowing, banking, and spending behaviors, and the relationship of debt attitudes with planned borrowing and saving behaviors. Based on a representative...

type="main" xml:id="joca12034-abs-0001" <b>In the wake of historic levels of mortgage defaults, regulators have debated how to regulate certain high-risk loans because of the risks of foreclosure involved. This study examines state laws that required loan applicants to receive information about the...</b>

Due to the rise in foreclosure filings, policymakers are increasingly concerned with helping families in financial distress keep their homes. This paper tests the extent to which distressed mortgage borrowers benefit from three types of state foreclosure polices: (1) judicial foreclosure...

The lack of research on how the 2004 safety-related withdrawal of the drug Vioxx affected consumer drug utilization or outcomes for competitors is a missed opportunity to learn from the largest drug withdrawal event in history. Our study fills this void using state-level repeated cross section...

This paper analyzes 26 studies that assess the impact of financial education and counseling targeted to low- and moderate-income consumers. Most studies report significant and positive findings, but the magnitude of impacts is often small compared to a control group. The evidence of behavior...

This paper uses repeated cross-sectional data from the Surveys of Consumer Finances (SCF) to characterize cohort patterns of net worth and debt of American households. Cohort patterns provide a useful benchmark for identifying potentially vulnerable households based on relative financial...

Financial education is commonly assumed to affect knowledge and behavior, yet its impacts remain relatively untested. Very low-income families in a subsidized housing program were randomly assigned to a mandatory financial education program and tracked for 12 months. Financial education led to...

<b>Millions of minority homeowners are at risk of losing their homes as a result of the housing crisis due to mortgage foreclosure and home repossession. One consumer-oriented policy response to this crisis is mortgage default counseling for borrowers. This study examines the rate at which minority...</b>

Loan modifications offer one strategy to prevent mortgage foreclosures by lowering interest rates, extending loan terms and/or reducing principal balance owed. Yet we know very little about who receives loan modifications and/or the terms of the modification. This paper uses data from a sample...